Confronted
with
an
ethics
investigation
zeroing
in
on
shady
actions
from
securing
hundreds
of
thousands
in
loans
from
a
brain-injured
client
—
secured
by
property
the
lawyer
did
not
own
—
to
failing
to
disclose
referral
fees,
New
Hampshire
attorney
Justin
Nadeau
apparently
thought
he
could
get
out
of
his
troubles
by
destroying
his
computer.
He
could
not.
He
was
disbarred
by
the
state
supreme
court.
Per
the
NH
Journal,
quoted
by
the
Legal
Profession
Blog:
According
to
the
Supreme
Court’s
disbarment
order
released
Tuesday,
Nadeau
slow-walked
producing
documents
related
to
the
case
to
the
PCC.
The
Democrat
even
destroyed
his
computer
before
the
hearing.
Nadeau
claims
he
made
all
the
appropriate
conflict
of
interest
disclosures
and
eventually
produced
printed
copies
of
the
letter
he
claimed
he
sent
her.However,
James
Berriman,
the
computer
expert
hired
by
the
PCC,
looked
through
Nadeau’s
office
server
and
found
the
dates
on
the
documents
Nadeau
gave
to
the
committee
were
fake,
and
the
documents
were
created
well
after
he
took
the
money
from
Fahey.
Putting
aside
the
obvious
ethical
problems
with
destroying
evidence,
how
does
an
attorney
not
realize
that
this
is
all
easily
discoverable
at
this
point.
Computer
forensics
specialists
have
been
catching
people
trying
to
destroy
evidence
for
years
now.
It’s
the
hubris
of
a
JD
to
think
that
you’re
more
clever
than
someone
who’s
actually
trained
in
the
specific
technical
skill
at
issue.
We
usually
see
this
come
up
when
judges
tell
us
how
much
better
at
medical
science
they
are
than
the
FDA
or
know
more
about
pandemics
because
they
fancy
themselves
economists,
but
it
manifests
just
as
frequently
in
thinking
that
they’re
better
at
computer
science
than
everyone
else.
Oops.
“One
Of
The
Most
Significant
Violations”
[Legal
Profession
Blog]
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter if
you’re
interested
in
law,
politics,
and
a
healthy
dose
of
college
sports
news.
Joe
also
serves
as
a
Managing
Director
at
RPN
Executive
Search.